


Riddle me this

by Cakelets (Lawlietluver)



Category: Persona 4
Genre: because i love writing fluff, the rest of the p4 cast is there too, warning probably gonna be lots of fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-13
Updated: 2015-07-16
Packaged: 2018-04-09 03:17:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4331733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lawlietluver/pseuds/Cakelets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kanji confesses by leaving riddles for Naoto to solve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Discovery

A/N: Hey everyone! just a quick note, this takes place during Naoto and Kanji’s second year of school after the murders and stuff and Narukami has left. Also I apologize for any weird formatting I'm still getting used to it.(Any tips are appreciated) So yea keep that in mind! Enjoy!

Naoto had always gotten letters in her locker. All had been of course love letters even after the rumor of her gender had been proven true. However the amount of small envelopes sealed with heart stickers had been a steep decline since the beginning of the new school year. It had seemed like people were finally getting the idea that she wasn't interested.

So when she had opened up her locker at the end of the day the beige envelope sitting inside was a bit surprising. Naoto frowned in annoyance before stuffing the envelope under her arm, placing her unneeded school materials into the locker and shouldering the door shut. Naoto was about to leave the school when she heard someone calling her name. The young detective turned to face Kanji striding towards her.

“Uh h-hey you heading home already?”  
“Yes, I was just leaving, is there anything you need from me?”  
At that Kanji’s face seemed to flush and he was suddenly very interested in the floor when he said.  
“Its um nothing but uh you know that stupid ass test we have in a few days?” Naoto nodded.  
“Yea well I kinda realized that I’ll be royally screwed if I don't at least _try_ to study and you are, ya know smart and stuff. . . “ Kanji trailed off.  
“Are you asking me to tutor you Kanji-kun?”  
“Uh if you have time I don't want to be a bother or nuthing.”  
“Its no problem. To your house then?”  
“uh yea sure.”  


The pair headed out, leaving the school campus towards the shopping district. Naoto walked with a purpose while Kanji awkwardly kept pace.

“Hey is that a letter? I didn’t know people were still givin them to you.” Kanji noticed, though Naoto couldn’t help but hear the nervous edge to those words. Naoto had almost forgot she was even carrying the letter. She looked down at it and immediately noticed the lack of heart stickers or cursive writing. Odd.

“It seems I for some reason am still the target of these romantic gestures. I meant to toss this one with the others sooner.”  
Kanji jumped a little bit in surprise.  
“Um you never read those letters? Not even one? Thats kind of harsh.” Naoto shrugged.  
“I never plan on reciprocating so why bother?”

Silence hung in the air a few minutes before Kanji managed to stammer out.

“Maybe you should read this one. I mean just f-for shits and giggles right?” Naoto was not amused, however this envelop did seem to differ from the usual. Curiosity always got the better of her in the end. Her fingers curled over the top of the envelope but before she could tear it open they were standing in front of Tatsumi Textiles. Without a word Naoto slipped the envelope into her pocket. Kanji seemed to glance at her nervously before opening the door to the shop and calling out

“Ma I’m home!”

His mother greeted them from behind the register and the pair slipped off their shoes and crossed into the house part of the shop. They sat down at the small table in the living room and Kanji pulled out his workbooks. Naoto reverted into professional mode.

“Alright what part do you not understand.” Kanji looked down sheepishly.  
“Um all of it.” Naoto frowned at that, her task may be harder than originally thought.  
“What about this part” She pointed to a one of the simpler math problems in the workbook. “Did you not learn this last year?” Again Kanji looked uncomfortable and looked anywhere but the work book.  
“Uh I dunno, I wasn’t really going to school last year until, ya know senpai helped me out.”  


That didn’t match what Naoto thought she knew about him. If she could remember back when she was interested in talking with him about the case he said he was going to school.  


“Kanji when we met.” Kanji’s face instantly turned two shades redder.  
“Y-yea what about it?”  
“Didn’t you tell me that you were going to school?”  
“Oh that, um That wasn’t really the truth.” He seemed embarrassed so Naoto moved back to the topic of mathematics.  
“Regardless this is simple, do you have any relocation of the Pythagorean theorem?”

An hour later the workbooks were closed and the pair were instead talking about a popular crime show. Naoto informing Kanji about how ‘this is not how a real police team works’ or ‘this process involves much more paperwork than what's shown’. While Kanji couldn’t really follow what Naoto said half the time, he still let her rant.  
However their conversation ended prematurely when Naoto noticed the time.  
“I’m sorry but I really must be going, Grandfather is expecting me.” Naoto said rising from her place at the table.

“Oh yea of course, I-I’ll walk you out.”

It was definitely getting late, the sun beginning to set and the street lamps that lined the shopping district were already lit up. She turned to Kanji and tipped her hat slightly. 

“Well I’ll be off now, see you tomorrow Kanji-kun.”  
“Yea right, see ya. Oh and thanks for helping me out I may even pass this time.” He said with a grin.  
“If you remember to distribute than you just might.” Naoto cracked a small smile before turning to head towards the bus station.  


After boarding the bus and choosing a seat by the back, Naoto finally slipped the envelope from her pocket, swiftly tearing the top and removing the paper inside. Her eyes widened as she skimmed the sloppily written message.  
**If you're up for a challenge than solve the riddles to find the clues  
**

**I have Eighty-eight keys but cannot open a single door  
what am I?**

Naoto reread the message,intrigued at the challenge. However solving a simple riddle couldn’t be too hard. Nevertheless She folded the note up again and slid it back into the envelop. She turned towards the window and watched cars pass by, her mind somewhere else completely. This little scavenger hunt reminded her of the one her grandfather had her solve. It was much more simple and last time Yu was in town to give her a hand. She leaned against the cool glass window of the bus as it carried her towards her grandfather's house.

 

~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Did she open it?!”  
“I dunno I didn’t see her open it Rise, she probably threw it out by now.” Kanji said into the phone.  
“What! but it was such a good plan . . .” Rise’s voice was dripping in disappointment.

Kanji sighed, he was getting tired of Rise’s supposedly great dating advice turning sour on him. He knew in the end it was probably his fault for screwing up the supposedly great dating advice, but he was starting to feel tired of it all.

“But hey there's still a chance! Naoto is a detective after all she will probably like this.” Rise tried reassuring him. He didn’t mention that there was also a chance that Naoto didn’t see him that way at all.  
“Thanks I guess.” He yawned and glanced across the room at his current knitting project.  
“You can thank me when one of these schemes works hehe, talk to you later Kanji.”  
“Night Rise.” He ended the call before going over to pick up the unfinished doll and starting to work on it more to ignore his worries. He really hoped that this would turn out okay.


	2. Chapter 2

Class that day was as boring as ever. Naoto had chosen to not pay attention to the current science lecture and instead decided to think about what could possibly have eighty eight keys. She knew it had to be a play on words but riddles like this could have a number of answers. 

A noise drew her out of thoughts. It was the sound of a small folded piece of paper landing on her desk. Her eyes flicked upward towards the teacher before she unfolded the note, reading it quickly. 

_This class sucks, wish we could mix real chemicals instead of just talk about them_

Kanji often passed her notes in this class, the morning classes he tended to be asleep and the others he would actually try to keep up with the lectures. Naoto scribbled back,

_I suggest you pay attention, there is math involved in these problems._

She discreetly tossed the note to Kanji’s desk. After a few seconds the note was back to her with the words.

_Its not like Im gonna understand anyway so why bother_

Naoto frowned wishing she could get across to the guy that if he payed attention then he would understand. However instead she wrote on the slip. 

Off subject, what has eighty eight keys but does not open any doors.

Her answer was passed back after a few minutes reading,

_Uhh a piano right? I saw that riddle somewhere before_

Of course a piano! How had it not hit her before, the answer was obvious. She would need to pay a visit to the music room and if no clues were to be found there than it would be back to the drawing board. She wrote a short thank you but was cut off by the bell signalling the end of the school day. 

“Ugh finally that class lasted forever.” Kanji said stretching in his seat.

“It was particularly uninteresting today.” Naoto gathered up her belongings and rose from her seat. Kanji doing the same. 

“So what was up with that riddle? You testing me or something?” “It was nothing really, thank you for helping me out though.” Kanji grinned. “No problem, it's rare enough that I could solve somethin before you anyway.” He haphazardly slung his bag behind his shoulder than said.

“Alright I’m off, catch you later.” She gave him a little wave before he walked off. “good bye Kanji-kun, please keep in mind that the math test is tomorrow.” “Right.” And with that the pair split off, going their separate ways. 

The music room was empty when Naoto entered it. She walked over to the solitary grand piano and inspected it, soon finding another brown envelope taped underneath the instrument. She quickly tore open the top and examined the note. 

**What kind of mouse doesn't like cheese?**

Another simple riddle, one that practically everyone knew the answer too. It was a computer mouse. A word written in the bottom right corner of the page automatically caught her eye “You”. She raised an eyebrow at that, pondering what that could mean and if the other hints would help her figure it out. She hastily opened the door to head off towards the computer lab, in her rush to leave she collided with someone.

“Oof Watch where- Oh Naoto! I didn’t expect you to be coming out of the music room.” Chie looked at Naoto with a look of bewilderment.

“Sorry Senpai, I was just off to the computer lab.”

“The computer lab? You gotta paper to write?” Her eyes glanced between the detective and the music room. “A paper about music?” Naoto shook her head.

“Nothing like that, I’m actually um solving something.” Chie raised her eyebrows. “You see, I received a letter in my locker the other day with a riddle, one riddle leading to the next and I’m curious to see what lies at the end.”

“Oh so like a scavenger hunt almost?”

“You could say that.”

“You want some help? What kinda riddles we talking here?” She said with a grin, already changing her course in the direction of the computer lab.

“They are pretty easy to solve, I wouldn’t want to trouble you.” Hadn’t Chie been about to do something before she ran into her? “Oh don’t worry about it, I didn’t really feel like club today anyway.”

And with that they made their way into the computer lab. Their search for envelopes in the lab ended up reaping no rewards. They checked under each mouse and around every monitor but no note was to be found. The answer to the riddle had to be a computer mouse, she was sure of it.

“Hm are there any other places with computers in the school? Oh! the library maybe?” Chie said as she looked over the last monitor.

“We will have to search tomorrow, the library is most likely closed by now.” “Oh right.” There was a pause before Chie spoke up again.

“I wonder who sent it, I mean it has to be someone at the school right?”

“There’s no doubt in my mind, I just hope this doesn't turn out to be a practical joke.

“Yea that would suck.”

They reluctantly left the lab and headed for the entrance of the school. Upon reaching the main front area, Naoto stopped by her locker waving off Chie. She collected some materials needed for studying and put up her other textbooks. She looked down at the work book and had a fleeting thought. _I hope Kanji actually studies tonight._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kanji was browsing the many aisles of the Junes. He had been dreading the actual act of studying. I mean seriously just sitting and staring at a math for hours on end was not his idea of fun. So when his mom commented on the lack of food in the refrigerator he jumped at the chance to do some shopping.

He was scanning over the vegetables, and thinking about how good fresh herbs would taste with the meal he planned on making, when he heard her voice.

“Kanji?” He turned to see Naoto standing a few feet away from him with a basket filled with various ingredients. And damn would he be lying if he didn’t say that cute she looked when surprised.

“N-Naoto?” ugh that stupid stutter. “What brings you here?”

“Same as you, groceries. I was planning to head straight home but grandfather complained about not having any food so.” She lifted the basket and shrugged a little.

“huh same as my mom.” There was an awkward pause before Kanji thought of something to say.

“Anyway, whatcha making?” he gestured to her basket.

“Um I will be preparing nothing, cooking is not really my forte. What about you Kanji-kun?”

Part of him really wanted to deny ever even seeing a cooking utensil before, like he would if Yosuke asked the question. However Naoto was definitely not Yosuke.

“Uh just curry, I’m not really um good with cooking and stuff but I can make curry.” “Hmm curry I believe my Grandfather said something about making that too.”

Suddenly an idea struck him, and idea Rise had already suggested to him at one point in time but he had never tried. He averted his eyes to his own basket of groceries before talking.

“Hey uh if ya wanted I could show you how to make it at my place, then you could take it to your grandfather or something.”

Fuck, his words sounded awkward as hell. He stole a glance to see the young detectives reaction and was shocked when he saw her face turn pink. Oh god she was blushing, and at this point he was sure he was also blushing. Was that good or bad sign?! If only he could discreetly text Rise.

“That would be fine.” Was Naoto’s response.

“G-great.”

After making some more small talk and gathering any remaining groceries the pair headed for the checkout. All Kanji could think was thank god neither Yosuke or Teddie were working the register that day.


End file.
